This invention relates to the control of Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), Queues by ACD Agents.
PROBLEM
An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), is an arrangement for connecting a caller to one of a plurality of Agents served by that ACD. Many highly flexible arrangements for Automatic Call Distributors exist in the prior art. One highly flexible scheme is described in Gechter et al: U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,535, which discloses arrangements for routing an incoming call to the most appropriate Agent that is available. The selection of that Agent is carried out by an overall control system which is aware of the current status of all Agents, and of a user profile of callers. This system is also arranged as are many other ACDs, to accept input from callers, usually in the form of Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals, keyed in response to announcement queries from the ACD. A problem of the prior art is, that this type of control of the ACD gives very little opportunity for callers to interact with the ACD, and to select an optimum queue path for finding an appropriate Agent to serve their call, since, in the prior art, the selection process is handled almost entirely by the control of the ACD in a single tree-type selection process. Further, in the prior art, ACDs are viewed as stand-alone systems, not as part of an ACD network. Further, communication of data to an ACD Agent is inefficient and time-consuming.
SOLUTION
The above problems are substantially alleviated and an advance is made over the teachings of the prior art in accordance with this invention, wherein an ACD is supplied with a User Controller such as a Personal Computer (PC), which interacts with a caller to provide information to the caller and to receive call direction information from the caller, and interacts with the Call Controller means of the ACD for establishing connections between the caller and a selected Agent, or between the caller and another ACD of an ACD network for completion by that other ACD. Advantageously, this allows the caller to control the selection of an appropriate Agent. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, a connection is established between the caller""s PC or data terminal and the PC User Controller of the ACD. The PC User Controller has access to the queues in the ACD in order to estimate the time required to reach a particular Agent, a particular sub-group of Agents, or any of the group of Agents handling the type of request that the user is making. The actual physical connection is between a user station and an Agent position. An Agent position is the means to permit an Agent to send and receive control signals to and from the ACD, and to provide a voice connection for the Agent.
In accordance with Applicants"" claimed invention, the Agents are empowered to use the same kinds of querying capabilities that are provided to the users in the Related Applications. These querying capabilities can be used to query another networked ACD containing Agent positions for communicating with Agents of the original, or xe2x80x9cHostxe2x80x9d ACD. These facilities can be used in case a first Agent wishes to transfer a call to a second Agent and/or another Agent served by a networked ACD, or to bring in such a second Agent on a conference connection, regardless of whether the second Agent is served by the Host ACD. The first Agent has the same capabilities as the user for scanning the queues, using Web Browser Tools, and for inserting a request into a queue using TCP/IP or other data protocol. In addition, the Agents may be provided with priority service, wherein a call from the first Agent to the second Agent in another networked ACD is given priority over other user calls, or the Agent may have access to a priority queue whose entries are served before, or in other preference to, the entries of the normal queue. Advantageously, the first Agent can select a second Agent, or one of a number of second Agents, to assist in serving a user. The caller may also select multiple ACDs and related Agents by requesting a Conference, using their Web Browser.
In accordance with another feature of Applicants"" invention, the Agent can scan the queue, and can query the user information supplied by the user or a central database, while the user is waiting. Advantageously, the Agent can then decide to accept a call out of turn with respect to the queue, instead of being forced to accept the call that the pre-programmed queue arrangement decides to deliver to the Agent. Selection of calls out of the normal sequence, permits the Agents to provide faster service and to reduce overall hold times.
In accordance with another feature of Applicants"" invention, the Agent at the first ACD to which the caller is initially connected, can access Agents of another ACD, the other ACD being an ACD of another company. Advantageously, this allows an Agent to bring another Agent of another company into a call in order to better serve the caller.
In accordance with another feature of Applicants"" invention, when another Agent from another ACD is added to a call, the first ACD can transmit user data for the call to the second ACD. In performing this transmission and information, the first ACD filters all private information concerning the caller, and concerning the ACD, using a Proprietary Information Filter between the two ACDs.
The ACD Agent can, with permission of the caller, conference together multiple callers interested in the same topic. The ACD Agent can establish a voice conference call, or set up a xe2x80x9cChat Roomxe2x80x9d, and link all parties interested in the same topic.